Reality Check: Minn. Budget Bill's State Workforce Cuts
Minnesota's laid off state workers are back on the job after the governor and legislature reached a budget deal, but they face more cuts with the compromise to end the 20-day shutdown.
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Minnesota's laid off state workers are back on the job after the governor and legislature reached a budget deal, but they face more cuts with the compromise to end the 20-day shutdown.
State employees began returning to work in Minnesota Thursday after a new budget agreement ended a government shutdown of nearly three weeks.
Both chambers of the Legislature went into floor sessions about 6 p.m. Tuesday and passed five of nine budget bills in less than two hours.
Minnesota's state government shutdown slid toward the three-week mark on Monday as key Republican legislators and members of Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton's administration scurried to translate a handshake budget deal into bills that can pass the GOP-controlled Legislature.
Not only are Minnesota lawmakers writing the bills behind closed doors, they are writing the bills inside the State Capitol, which is closed and locked to the public.
Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican leaders are hoping to finish work by midnight on a budget deal to end Minnesota's 15-day government shutdown. It's an agreement no one seems to like, including Dayton.
In the two weeks since Minnesota's shutdown began, Republican House and Senate leaders have called five times for Gov. Mark Dayton to call a special session. They say the shutdown is "completely unnecessary" because there's agreement on almost every aspect of the major budget bill.
Lyda Hanson thought she was one of the lucky ones. Even before graduating from beauty school, she landed a job at a "perfect" salon and was ready to get started on her dream career.
WCCO-TV's Reality Check reported last week that an overwhelming majority of Minnesota lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, are getting paid during the shutdown. Now, one legislator says there's something wrong with that.
Minnesota is about to enter the record books: the longest state government shutdown in modern history.
Day eight of the Minnesota government shutdown could be called the day of "no:" No talks scheduled, no progress, no urgency and no signs of a compromise.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty inserted himself into the 2011 shutdown debate twice in the last six days.
A commission convened by former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Gov. Arne Carlson says Minnesota should raise cigarette, alcohol and income taxes to end a week-old government shutdown.
Another step backwards for Minnesota lawmakers trying to negotiate a budget deal to end the government shutdown, now in it's sixth day.
The blind are losing reading services. A help line for the elderly has gone silent. And poor families are scrambling after the state stopped child care subsidies.
Minnesota stumbled into its second government shutdown in six years on Thursday, with a partisan divide over taxes and spending to close a $5 billion deficit becoming only more bitter as a midnight deadline came and went without agreement.
Minnesota's governor and top Republican lawmakers broke from a sixth straight day of budget talks Wednesday without solving an impasse over the $5 billion deficit, hours after a judge issued a bare-bones list of services that must be maintained if state government shuts down.
Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders met briefly Monday, but kept a tight clamp on whether their private meetings have produced any progress toward a budget deal that would head off a government shutdown at the end of the week.
Part of a state shutdown that has thousands of families worried: Nursing home workers could be declared "non-essential," and state payments could stop. Furthermore, if there's an extend shutdown, some nursing homes could close.
Gov. Mark Dayton says a Republican offer to drop $200 million in tax cuts they wanted and spend it on his priorities is a "non-proposal" that gets the two sides no closer to a budget deal that would avert a government shutdown in two weeks.
Republican leaders and the governor will try again Thursday to make progress on a state budget agreement -- and avoid a government shutdown.
Rep. Michele Bachmann says she is officially a candidate for GOP nomination for president.
For those who enjoy visiting Minnesota's state parks, the shutdown could affect where many of us spend our Fourth of July weekend.
More budget meetings at the state capitol, but there was very little progress. So groups with an interest in the fight are turning to TV, in an attempt to win the battle of public opinion.
Minnesota's Department of Management and Budget announced Thursday that it sent out 36,000 layoff notices to state employees by U.S. Mail.
